Hey All,
My team is about to reorganize the shop, and Can anyone recommend good storage containers for like storing screws and larger pieces for working on a part without losing crap. Thanks
Fishing tackle boxes are a nice way of keeping the smaller things, though a lot of shops have LocBins for more open storage. As for larger items, the KoP totes do wonders.
We just do pretty much this, label the organizer and its slot and you can easily find everything:
Basically this.
Iron Kings use these, but they were much cheaper when we bought them. Shop around, but these are very nice sturdy bins for hardware and small parts.
Garnet Squadron used ones like these to store things bigger than that. Their method was to sort everything by function (pneumatics, controls, gears, sprockets, etc.) If you couldn’t fit everything into a bin with the lid closed, then you dumped that bin out and refined the sort further (say, splitting out #25 and #35 sprockets or separating solenoids from air tanks).
Combine the two, and I think you’re about perfect.
This is exactly what we do now. If you’ve ever had fastener storage tip over and it wasn’t the locking type, you’ll understand exactly why individual pockets with a locking cover is important!
We are currently building some new storage units that should be able to hold all of our parts. Wheels and other large parts will go in the lower openings.
Yes, we do this too! We’re working on updating our shelves as the old ones were way bigger than their storage value. For us, any hardware beyond what we have these bins for turns into junk drawers.
Ditto on this solution - We have it integrated into a pit cart so we can just close the whole thing up with our basic stuff, push it into our trailer, and take it straight to events.
(we use old KOP totes for long term / bulky storage - our robotic storage room has a good 12’ tall by 20’ long wall shelving sized for KOP totes)
Actually just made this last weekend. It accepts the medium and large Harbor Freight organizers. Still a lot of transferring parts from random bins around the shop left. This one is pretty thrown together but I have plans to make a bigger aluminum version for next year since we’ll definitely fill this one pretty quickly.
WHat are those boxes called
They are the medium and large parts organizers from Harbor Freight. They are only about $7.70 and $10.50 each so they are good for the price. We have been taking a few to every event we attend for maybe 6 years and the only one that has had issues was the one I dropped from 5 feet while trying to carry 6 of them at once.
We put together some shelves and added card board boxes. This keeps everything out where you can see it.
you could always go to your local post office and grab a bunch of flat rate shipping boxes for storage bins, then just write on it with a marker
Do you have a CAD or specs of that that I could look at? It looks cool and is a lot better than our system of making stacks.
If you do build something like that, I would make one suggestion, that one the end of the side supports, you add a little notch detail, so when you push the container in it will drop down into a pocket. This will keep the containers from riding out when in transit.
I did some googling and stumbled upon Kaizen Foam its used to organize tools and other stuff does anyone have good recommendations for Kaizen foam like a link where to buy it.
Thanks
Fast Cap sells various thicknesses and styles of Kaizen Foam and tools to work with it. They also have videos describing how to use the foam and tools they sell. I personally haven’t used either before, but when I get the chance to do some tools/parts organization, their Kaizen Foam and tools (and the other recommendations in this thread) will be high on my list.
But don’t build them while wearing thong sandals!
We’re in the process of building a bunch of these:
Modular storage boxes that hold different kinds of organizers
They have rubber feet on the bottom and we’re going to drill holes on top to make them stackable. Also need to route handles in the sides.
Our hope is to make a cart to move them around, and different tops (one to turn the box into a seat, one to turn the boxes into a workbench, etc).
Cutting the rest of the parts to make 6-7 more this week. They costs right around $11 each, and our local library has asked for a few as well. We have the solidworks plans, once we work the kinks out we’d be happy to post the plans.